Review: Upper Body Ties Made Easy

Shibari Classes

Recently we subscribed to Upper Body Ties Made Easy on the ShibariClasses website. It's the second course we've purchased and it features just under an hour of tutorial videos, with written notes to accompany each topic.

See our submission to Sinful Sunday 340 for an additional photo of some rope impressions...

One of the first things we noted was that there are ten tutorials all together. Straight away that seemed like great value, but the reality is even better because their ethos is very much one of teaching "ingredients" that can be mixed and matched. We found we've been able to incorporate this new learning into techniques that we've already been practising, as well as experimenting with minor variations on some of the featured ties. (For an example of a fun improvisation, see our "magic-wand" vibrator scene towards the end of the article.)

All the videos are great quality and you can watch them in your web browser, pausing and rewinding to check any details, and all of the instructions are very easy to follow. One of our favourites has been the reverse tension rifle bearer (seen above) which is a single-rope tie that leaves the entire front of your body completely exposed.

* Laptop screen is simulated for photographic purposes (LCD not bright enough!) but rest assured the video playback is very good quality in any normal circumstances.

Upper Body Ties Made Easy

Over the course of ten video tutorials, several techniques are explored, along with alternative methods, minor variations and refinements.

Two M-shape arm ties

Two Teppo (rifle bearer) ties

Teppo with half gote (suspension capable)

Single choker tie

Double choker tie

Floor based suspensions

Simple high hands gote (takate kote)

All of the courses are taught by Nina Russ, with her model Melanie. I'm not as flexible as she is, but there are good explanations regarding degrees of flexibility and it never feels like the course demands you to be super-athletic. So don't feel put off just because you're not a double-jointed, ambidextrous Olympic gymnast and former ballet dancer! ;-)

Also remember that nothing is set in stone, and it soon becomes easy to combine elements to form your own ties. For example, I don't find the position in the "choker tie" tutorials very comfortable, so if you look at the image below you'll see we've used that tutorial as the basis of a slightly different tie where the front arm is hugged against the body and my elbow is snugly tucked in.

Lots more practise is needed, we know there's a lot to take in, and inevitably it will take time. However, I do think that even as relative beginners we've been able to pick up loads of useful ideas from this course and it's helping our confidence to grow. More importantly, we're getting to the stage where we're having a lot more fun in our exploration of rope.

Learning So Far...

We've been practising the techniques over the last few weeks, gradually feeling reasonably comfortable with them, but we'll definitely return to the course again in a few months time and review what we've learned.

I think that's the beauty of this style of tutorial subscription model. You can dip in, pick out some specific techniques that you want to work on, go away and practice them for a few more weeks, then re-subscribe to the course. Another thing we really like about the ShibariClasses courses is their modular format - teaching ingredients and explaining how to mix and match different techniques.

In the image above we've combined a simple futo momo style leg tie with a rifle-bearer half-gote tie and a simple (but rather secure!) tie on my left foot that makes it difficult to resist the legs-open position. The addition of a mains powered magic-wand introduces a delightfully inescapable predicament! ;-)

If you want to see some more from this course before subscribing, we briefly summarised our first impressions of the course in an earlier article. All in all, we highly recommend the course, so do go and check it out, and enjoy! :-)

Summary

So far we have found learning from video to be ideal and Nina's teaching style is relaxed, yet very detailed. There are several free courses on ShibariClasses, and if you follow the link above you'll be able to sign up for a free account and start exploring.

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